Phrase epithets and their translation

A phrase and even a whole sentence may act as a single idea to modify a noun and thus become an epithet if the main formal requirement of the epithet is maintained, i.e. its attributive use (He was that I’m-a-friend-of-the-boss type). In such a case the phrases and sentences lose their independence and graphically and syntactically become similar to a word. Phrase epithets are always hyphenated and followed by a noun, e.g.: There is a sort of ‘ Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-something-to-make-it-better-and-nobler’ expression about Montmorency that has been known to bring tears into the eyes of pious old ladies and gentlemen (Jerome K. Jerome) or Ned explained this to me with his where-would-he-be-without-me? look. (John Waine).

One of the main reasons for the usage of phrase epithet in the text is that they carry very rich semantic information. They also express features and properties which simply do not have a corresponding synonym with a simple lexical form.

The translation of the phrase epithets presents considerable difficulty since in the majority of the cases it is impossible to find direct equivalents of such constructions in Ukrainian as they are not typical of the Ukrainian language. In each concrete case the choice of the translational variant depends on the concrete lexical meaning and stylistic function of the phrase epithet and on the meaning of the whole context. Still, the general approaches for translation techniques are as follow:

1. In cases when a phrase epithet consists of a sentence (interrogative, exclamatory, or narrative), and there is a connotation of comparison, or else it is a quotation of somebody’s direct speech or possible thoughts, it could be rendered with the same structural pattern as in the SL, i.e., word-for-word, e.g.: He mumbled his usual “ Better-than-I-deserve” reply to my how-do-you-do greeting. – Він пробурмотів своє звичне “ Краще, ніж я того заслуговую” у відповідь на моє запитання про те, як у нього справи.

Usually, the introductory words, or word combinations like наче, немов (кажучи), and other synonymous expressions are added, e.g.:

She gave Mrs. Silsburn a you-know-how-men-are look… – Вона глянула на місіс Сілзберн, наче кажучи: “Ви ж знаєте, які чоловіки …”.

2.In some cases a phrase epithet is rendered with just one word – a simple epithet or an adjective phrase, e.g.: take-it-or-leave-it statement - ультимативна заява; He had dark spectacles, puffy cheeks and a tell-me-my-good-man way talking – Він був у темних окулярах, з одутлими щоками і з довірливою манерою говорити. This can be interpreted as semantic narrowing of equivalents in translation.

3. Quite often it is necessary to paraphrase or explicate the meaning of a phraseological unit within the structure of an English phrase epithets, e.g.: He coolly told the waiter to telephone for two stalls, which seemed to me a grand-man-about-town way of doing things. – Він холодно наказав офіціанту замовити по телефону два місця в партері, що здавалося мені чудовим способом провадити справи, до якого вдаються світські люди. A “man-about-town” is a phraseological unit and means “світська людина, багатий джиґун”.

4. Numerous phrase epithets, especially those lacking connotation, are usually rendered into Ukrainian with participial clause or subordinate sentences, which leads to a certain loss of imagery, e.g.: the gosh-what-I’ll-give-them people – люди, яким важко підібрати подарунок.

It is necessary to note that it is impossible to suggest a certain technique, suitable in all cases, for rendering phrase epithets so extensively used in English. The richness of the Ukrainian language, its specific means for conveying various shades of meaning, are so diverse, that their choice will depend on the context and stylistic value of a phrase epithet in a TL.

Task:

Analyze the phrase epithets in the following sentences and suggest how their meaning should be rendered into Ukrainian:

1. Jack looked toward Smokey, as desperate as a cornered animal... but Smokey was staring back with the thin-lipped, out-of-patience expression.

2. Clay left his feet where they were [on his friend's bed] for a few don't-tell-me-where-to-put-my-feet seconds, then swung them to the floor and sat up.

3. After a moment’s thought he decided to try the skittish let’s-all-have-a-jolly-game approach.

4. Willy was famous for having, as a child, witnessed his father's death, killed by a camel on a long-planned long-looked-forward-to-visit to Egypt.

5. Naturally after we grabbed him we went to his office and house to see what we could find out – you know, where-you-were-on-the-night-of-June-6, 1894-stuff – and the present cook said she'd only been working for him since the 8th of October, and that led to that.

6. The place had its own peculiar smell, thrilling to devotees, compounded of warmth and water and chemicals and healthy wet green foliage. Adam loved this smell. He stood awhile smelling the plants and looking with satisfaction at the wet marble and hugging the private thrill of his own soon-to-be-swimming sensations.

7. Plain practical rowing of the get-the-boat-along order is not a very difficult art to acquire, but it takes a good deal of practice before a man feels comfortable when rowing past girls.

8. Then we would eat at the dining-table in the front kept-for-best-in-the-off-chance-HM-the-Queen-should-ever-drop-by-unannounced-and-be-in-desperate-need-of-a-cup-of-tea room with its doilies, polish china and scary macramé picture of a donkey that my late great-aunt Irene had made.

9. His partner put a hand on his arm and nodded toward Jack in a little-pitchers-have-big-ears gesture.

10. He had the short body, the big shoulders, the round chest, no neck, a great ruddy beard, the tufted eyebrows, the “What do you want, damn you!” look about the eyes, and the whole catalogue.

11. In their matrimonial bickerings they were, upon the whole, a well-matched, fairly-balanced, give-and-take couple. It would have been, generally speaking, very difficult to have betted on the winner ".

12. Oh, I remember something she said while she was dressing. I didn't know what Chris said, but she said: "When I ask her she'll tell me," in that Queen-of-France way she talks sometimes.

13. The John-Bull-like lady over there, he learned from the aunt, was “Mrs. Tomkins, the kindest old soul, somewhat hard of hearing, that house above Elm House, her son is in India”; while another voice informed him tersely, “A perfect gooseberry”.

14. “You nasty, idle, vicious, good-for-nothing brute,” cried the woman, stamping on the ground, "why don't you turn the mangle?"

15. "It used to be a fellow named Mac-something-or-other – Macaulay, that's it. Herbert Macaulay. He was in the Singer Building."

16. When Nora opened the door to go out, the dog came in and put her front feet on the bed, her face in my face. I rubbed her head and tried to remember something Wynant had once said to me, something about women and dogs. It was not the woman-spaniel-walnut-tree line. I could not remember what it was, but there seemed to be some point in trying to remember.

17. Elaine was wearing her slob-around-the-apartment garb: a gray T-shirt that she used to wear to her yoga class and a pair of brown shorts from the Gap she’d bought the year that brown was the new black.

18. Monday to Friday she did her work uniform of fashionable-yet-stylish very well. Saturday was her day off.

19. At least here she knew she would have few rivals in the taste and luxury of her clothes; and the surreptitious glances at her little “plate” hat (no stuffy old bonnets for her) with its shamrock-and-white ribbons, her vert esperance dress, her mauve-and-black pelisse, her Balmoral boots, were an agreeable compensation for all the boredom inflicted at other times.

20. As I looked down dolefully at the plate in front of me, it occurred to me that really I had only myself to blame. I knew full well that my mum was forever mixing up my favorite anything with the favorite anythings of my long-flown-the-next siblings.

21. He would begin magnificently with a wild, full, come-to-the-battle sort of a note, that quite roused you. But he would get more and more piano as he went on, and the last verse generally collapsed in the middle with a splutter and a hiss.

22.She sighed, frowned, then clapped her big plump hands together in a let's-get-down-to-business manner, and again fired her beady eyes upon me.

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